RSSMeridian G95 Surround Receiver Reviewed
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Meridian is known to many as the first maker of a true audiophile CD player, and now they have branched out into the high-end receiver market with an all-in-one solution to home theater: just add speakers and display and you are ready to go. The G95 Surround Receiver is a truly unique piece, offering a slot-loading DVD-ROM drive capable of playing CDs, MP3 CDs, Video CDs and DVD-Video discs. Included in the box are a full-function Meridian preamp, as well as five 100-watts-per-channel digital amplifiers to power your choice of passive speakers and a line level subwoofer output for your powered subwoofer, for a full 5.1 system from a single box. Should you have other devices you want to run through the system, don't worry. The G95 comes with two coaxial and two optical digital inputs, as well as three stereo analog inputs. A high quality AM/FM tuner is also built in. The G95 comes in black or silver and retails for $8,500.Additional Resources
• Read more AV receiver reviews from HomeTheaterReview.com.
• Find an audiophile grade amplifier to connect to the G95.
The G95 offers two composite, three S-Video and one component input, with composite, S-Video, component and HDMI video outs that are all always active, so it will suit any display, or more than one at a time. It is packed with powerful video features, including a Meridian Faroudja DCDi scaler and processor for upsampling sources up to 1080p and transcoding all analog inputs between each other and HDMI, allowing a single video connection to your display.
This is an amazing piece of audio gear. First off, Meridian has employed everything they've learned over the years to make this an amazing-sounding piece, especially when considering it's a single box. Second, it has 5.1 analog outputs, so should you move out of your small condo one day and need more power, no problem. Just add some amps and you are still in the game. To top it off, the unit is built like a tank and weighs over 30 pounds. Clearly, Meridian built this to last for years to come.
Read about the high points and low points of the G95 on Page 2.
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Comment on this article
I want one of these when I get my high end city condo!
Now i know i may raise some eyebrows on this one, but hey................Meridian, top of the line digital equipment. No argument there. Built to last, ease of use, great sound, functional, and usually future proof.
Again, and those of you that know me, now that I have a problem with this. You are spending $8,500.00 on the hub of your system. Home theater system, right??! But, you can not play Blu-Ray movies w/o buying a switcher. Also, it does not have any of the new codecs. How do you justify that. Sound is comprised me here if you can
not take advantage of everything the technology has to offer. We see this, much to much with the so called super high end or esoteric companies. I can pick almost any receiver from 599.00 and up, that is complete.
So while this is a beautiful made unit, sound is great, dare I say (remember the Twilight Zone episode) its
obsolete, no codecs, no Blu-Ray?
I think you are being a little hard on the old G95. Its a KILLER sounding receiver for the people looking for an all-in-one solution.
YES - its low on the new features but the extra box can be argued to be better than that sound you get from an all-in-one receiver.
Go listen to one - then compare it to a $2000 receiver and tell me what you want to listen to Steely Dan or The Dark Knight on EVEN with the higher price. I'll bet its the g95
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